Iran funeral descends into anti-regime protest ahead of election

Iran has witnessed a rare show of political dissent in the run-up to next
week’s presidential election after mourners chanted anti-regime slogans at
the mass funeral of a dissident cleric, according to amateur video footage.

Chants of “death to the dictator” and “dictator, dictator, may your sleep be disturbed” were heard on videos of the funeral procession in Isfahan, Iran’s second city, following the death of Ayatollah Jalaluddin Taheri, who died on Sunday, aged 87.

The footage – whose authenticity cannot be verified – also contained chants in support of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, presidential candidates in the country’s fraud-tainted 2009 election, who have been under house arrest for more than two years.

Marchers were heard on one video chanting: “Mousavi and Karroubi must be released.”

There were no reported arrests or clashes between mourners and security forces, a possible sign that the authorities are wary of disturbances before the June 14 poll. The 2009 election, which returned Mahmoud Ahamdinejad as president, was followed by weeks of violent turmoil amid opposition charges of vote-rigging.

Tuesday’s funeral, attended by tens of thousands according to local estimates, coincided with an official day of mourning to mark the 24th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of Iran’s Islamic revolution.

It followed the arrests of seven campaign workers for Hassan Rowhani, a reformist candidate in next week’s election, after a rally last weekend in which supporters chanted support for Mr Mousavi and Mr Karroubi.

Mr Rowhani, a former Iranian nuclear negotiator under the reformist former president, Mohammad Khatami, was said to have attended Ayatollah Taheri’s funeral, a move likely to antagonise Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader and most powerful figure.

Ayatollah Taheri resigned as Isfahan’s Friday prayer leader in 2002 in protest at what he saw as the betrayal of the revolution by Iran’s rulers.

In his resignation letter, he hit out at "life-long powers; mafia-type gangs...that act under the name of religion and authoritarian fascists...walking up the ladder of religion and riding on the back of political camels”.

Tuesday’s funeral echoed events after the death in December 2009 of Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri – another dissident cleric who had been banished by the regime.

Ayatollah Montazeri’s funeral in Qom, the home of Iran’s religious establishment drew a mass turnout and was followed days later by violent street clashes in Tehran between protestors and security forces that left at least nine people dead.

Ayatollah Taheri is said to have requested in his will that he be buried beside Ayatollah Montazeri. Reports say Ayatollah Khamenei vetoed the request.